Running from good health?

As an Adventist, I have said for years about our lifestyle issues - "We're running fast from our inspired view of health, while everyone else is running to it." This clip from N. T. Wright, Rob Bell, Jamie Oliver: A Disappointment for Adventism? (you can read the whole thing, but it doesn't all pertain to good health....) Of course I've said the same thing about the Sabbath principle, also addressed in this blog link above.

Read on: (the rest of this entry is from the Spectrum blog)

Jamie Oliver
The BBC defined Jamie Oliver as one of the most influential chefs in the western world. The TED conference has also invited him to present a world changing wish to its membership. Jamie is a celebrity chef famous for bringing healthy food to schools both in Britain and parts of America. Again, much like Ellen White, Jamie believes that people's eating patterns define their quality of life. Also like Ellen White and most Adventists since, he has worked tirelessly to educate children and parents how to eat and develop healthy lifestyles. Although he is not known the world over, Jamie is widely recognized in Britain and America as someone who promotes healthy eating.

This demonstrates a third disappointment for Adventism. Since 1863 Adventists have been proclaiming that what humans eat connects body to spirituality. At a time when doctors recommended smoking to clear the lungs, Adventist hospitals prohibited tobacco and defended, even without solid evidence, that tobacco severally damaged users. Over a hundred years later there is now solid scientific evidence for most of Ellen White's claims about tobacco and heathly living. Beyond this, the western world is constantly emphasizing a holistic view to health that sounds remarkably Adventist. Meanwhile, there is a wave of Adventist youth who reject these principles whilst their parents stop reading Ellen White altogether!

Beyond this, the disappointment is that Jamie Oliver is a single chef who has captured the attention of governments and the media. The Adventist Church has multiple health institutions and nutrition degrees taught in various universities around the world. Despite this structure, Adventists have only been slightly influential due a National Geographic report on Loma Linda and the independent documentary The Adventists, by Martin Doblmeier. It is indeed disappointing that Seventh-day Adventists could have been the mainstream voice calling proclaiming health in the last few decades. Instead, we struggle to inspire our own membership to lead healthier lifestyles. To add insult to injury, when Jamie Oliver was called by ABC to produce a series of documentaries in the United States, he called for Christian pastors to join his cause for healthier living. This would have given a great voice to any Adventist who stepped forward. However, the main Christian to join him is a Baptist pastor from Virginia.